When You Thought The Hunt was Over
by PoppyHr17
Summary: 'Sam found himself nearly forgetting how to breathe, the panic taking over as a wave of nausea threatened to bring him to the toilet because he couldn't hear. He couldn't hear anything.' Sam went to bed perfectly fine, but now he's not. And it's up to a worried and protective Dean to figure out what's happened. hurtSam, protective/comfortDean


Rain beat down against the car windows, being drowned out by the sound of Dean's triumphant music, a sure sign of a successful hunt. Dean glanced at his younger brother, who was currently curled up against the window and suddenly looking all about five years old as he drew his knees to his chest.

Although the hunt they had both just done had been successful as far as Dean had been concerned, a ghost finally put to rest and no more killings in the small town they were staying in, it had also resulted in a pretty banged up Sam. Dean had been in the process of finding and burning the lock of hair from the ghost of a Richard Simmons, a young man who had been murdered and thrown into the pond that was in front of the abandoned house they were currently in, when Sam was chucked into the nearest wall causing a cabinet to fall on him, effectively trapping him between the floor. This wasn't a new thing, since the beginning of their hunting days ghosts had been throwing the Winchesters around and trapping them against various objects, hell at this stage in the game it was even expected, but it didn't mean that it hurt any less. This much was proven as Dean watched Sam wince in pain as he leaned back in the passenger seat and attempted to relax on his back, which by now was probably a mess of bruises.

"Sam, get some rest." Dean said, promptly turning down his music and hoping the patter of the rain might be able to lull his younger brother to sleep.

"I'm fine. We don't have long till we reach the motel, right? If I fall asleep in here I won't be able to get back up." Sam grimaced, suddenly feeling every bruise that covered his back as he twisted to face Dean. He had a point, Dean thought. He so did not want to be carrying his brother into the motel when Dean himself could hardly keep his eyes open either. Silence reigned in the car for the next couple of miles, Dean slowly pulling up to the Motel and resting a hand on his brothers shoulders.

"Need help walking? Your backs kinda messed up."

Sam shook his head, pushing himself up and surprised in himself when he was able to walk without feeling like his back was going to collapse any second. Maybe he hadn't been thrown around as much as he thought, but damn he was tired.

They made it back to the room and got ready for bed in record time, Sam flopping onto the bed furthest from the door as usual and rolling onto his stomach to look at Dean.

"Dude, stop staring." Dean glared, climbing into bed and switching off the light.

"Says you, Mrs Mother hen who wouldn't stop checking me out the whole way home." Sam smirked.

"Shut up. You were the one whining about how little sleep you've had the past few days because of sleeping in the car. You have a bed, so get sleeping."

Sam sighed and turned around in the bed, wanting to argue with his brother even just for the sake of it but a wave of fatigue washed over him and he closed his eyes to Dean's voice still nattering on the other side of the room.

"Anyway, we'll head off tomorrow. Unless you wanna stay and see if you can get lucky with that old lady who was chatting you up the other day at the library. I thought I told you no messing around on the job anyway? Theres an exception for me because I'm not really the one to be attracted to the granny types…Sam?" Dean trailed off as he realised Sam was now sound asleep, breathing softly into the pillow. Dean huffed a laugh, whispering a quick goodnight and turning over to sleep himself.

Sam woke to a searing pain in his head, causing him to groan as he sat himself up in bed, noting that Dean wasn't there, his bed empty. Guessing he had gone for coffee and breakfast, Sam pushed himself off the bed and swallowed two pills hoping it would dull down the pain that thumped in his head. It was only when turning the tap on to wash his face that Sam realised that something was wrong. The water from the tap seemed to be working just fine but it couldn't be, because he couldn't hear it. _He couldn't hear it._ The emptiness of the room seemed suddenly eerie, still and silent. Sam realised with a sickening feeling that he couldn't hear _anything._ Not the birds outside, the voices of people he knew were milling around the motel, the sound of his feet on the floor as he walked, not the goddamn tap which was still gushing water into the sink. Sam found himself nearly forgetting how to breathe, the panic taking over as a wave of nausea threatened to bring him to the toilet because _he couldn't hear. He couldn't hear anything. _He staggered to the TV in the corner of the room, turning the volume up to the highest setting willing himself to stay calm and control his breathing when he saw people on the screen talking, their mouths moving but no sound.

"Hello?" Sam said to the emptiness of the motel room, attempting to test his voice.

_He couldn't hear._

* * *

"Dean returned to the motel room bearing gifts, ie, some fancy coffee he knew Sam would like and a box of donuts for them to share, which meant he would eat it and Sam would moan until Dean would give in and let them buy some boring fruit salad. Dean was expecting Sam to be asleep, how he left him, or maybe even showered and ready to go. What he wasn't expecting was Sam to be sitting on the bed, his eyes glued to the TV which was turned up to the highest volume.  
""Sam, what are you doing?" Dean set the food down on the table and watched as Sam's face was pinched with tension.

"Sam!" When Dean received no reply he pushed Sam's shoulder, preparing to lay into him about stupid little brothers who turned TVs up way too loud and didn't notice when he had been snuck up on, but changed his mind when he felt Sam flinch under his hand and turn to stare at him.

""Dean, somethings wrong." Sam all but shouted in Dean's face, his hand gripping Dean's arm which reached to turn the TV off.

"Yeah, maybe because you have the volume up so loud that I could hear your crappy show from outside. Knock it off Sam." Dean grumbled, shaking his arm out of Sam's death grip.

"Dean, I can't hear you." Sam yelled.

"What are you on about?" Dean turned around.

"I can't hear. I can't hear anything." Sam shouted again, the panic returning as he desperately tried to get his brother to understand. Dean felt his heart quicken in his chest. What did he mean he couldn't hear?

"What, like anything?" Dean said, but was met with Sam's confused eyes as he visibly tried to decipher what Dean had said. Dean cursed.

"Dean, I'm deaf!" Sam said with a strange realisation. Dean's face changed from utter confusion to anger.

"Don't say shit like that Sam! God." Surely it wasn't normal for people to fall asleep and wake up being basically deaf?

Sam gave no time for Dean to think, pushing himself up against the headboard and forcing himself to take deep breaths as panic took over. Silent eyes pleaded with Dean to try and understand, to fix whatever was going on, and damn if Sam would stop giving Dean heart attacks with the trouble he attracted maybe Dean would have a lot more of a stress free life. Dean closed his eyes and took a deep breath himself, but Sam was still there when he opened his eyes, pale, sweaty and struggling to breathe and Dean snapped back into action.

"Hey, hey, calm down, you're ok, I promise. Sammy, I promise you're gonna be fine." Dean crouched in front of him, gently cupping Sam's face in his hands ignoring how Sam leant into his touch and noticeably relaxed.

"We'll figure this out ok?" Dean promised, but was met with confusion. He swore as he realised, of course, Sam couldn't hear him. He grabbed the notepad they had been making their notes in and scribbled what he said, adding a smily face for good measure.

_"First, I'm gonna get your ass to the hospital. Maybe something's gone wrong in there. Come on._" Dean wrote, then tapped on the side of Sam's face, not expecting any kind of positive reaction, so not being surprised when all he got was a small sigh and watery eyes from Sam.

* * *

**Next chapter up really soon :) Please review and tell me what you think and any suggestions you may have. Lots of hurt Sam and protective Dean in the next one!**


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